National home buyers etc

MouldyOldDough

Have any of you had any good reports on these companies?
I am considering using them 
Any advice welcome 

EndlessStruggle

They have an established history of offering you 10-25% less than "market value".

And then deciding "the market has changed", "we haven't had much interest", "it needs x work doing before sale" the day before exchange backing you into a corner to taking a much lower offer, usually 10-50k less. 

You would be better off going to auction with a reserve if selling on open market isn't an option.

I would only use one if you really want to just offload a property and REALLY don't care how much less than "market value" you get or how much you could get elsewhere. 

I believe this industry is totally unregulated as well unlike others where at least there are some regulations/codes of conduct.

TripleH

Think I read that they often 'buy your house' but only pay you once they've sold it on(?) so you have to wait for someone else to buy at the market value.

In which case just cut out the middleman.

propertyrental

And they often require you tomake payments upfront too for eg a Valuation or admin'.

So when they later reduce the offer, you are reluctant to refuse having already forked out....

Steer clear.

housebuyer219

I would avoid. I spoke to one of them to try and get a ball park figure for what they would offer me . Was 85k less than what I’m currently on the market at and this was before all their sneaky last minute renegotiations. Look on trustpilot etc for reviews, most paint the same picture. I guess they are useful if you don’t care about price and do need a quick sell for whatever reason 

Mutton_Geoff

Or you could try the search function going back as far as 2005 - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/26481/national-house-buyers

NameUnavailable

These house purchase firms are wonderful, they pay top prices and ensure a really quick and easy sale for you.

Someone I know once said some critical things about one of these type of companies and they were threatened with legal action for libellous comments and damage to the business.